


I'll Make You See Me

by Akiko_Natsuko



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-30 01:29:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17819237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akiko_Natsuko/pseuds/Akiko_Natsuko
Summary: Ashe's hands balled in her pockets, the drying blood tugging on her skin, not painful but uncomfortable. The sensation grounded her, reminding her that she had a life now, one that she was carving out with her own hands and blood. A life that her parents and their dreams and expectations had no say in, and never would if she had anything to say about it, and she lifted her head and took a deep breath, before striding forward with her head held high.I will make you see me.





	I'll Make You See Me

      Ashe was cautious as she slipped in through the back door of the house, burying the urge to turn around and run and keep going that hit her every time she came home these days, especially on days like this when she all but slunk into the place that was supposed to make her feel safe and welcome. However, she had bigger concerns this time, and she was careful to keep her hands buried deep in her pockets, ignoring the small voice that sounded remarkably like her father’s that scolded her being unladylike. It was better than being discovered. Not that she needed to worry, as the servants were careful not to look in her direction – pretending that she was just as invisible as her ever-absent parents, although she knew that if she spoke they would leap to attention and pretend that she was the most important thing in the world.

An act that left an increasingly bitter taste in her mouth.

    Especially, as she sometimes wondered if she really was invisible. Knowing that even when they looked at her, all they saw was the family name and money, a duty to be fulfilled and nothing more. She hated it, and them, and for a moment she itched to take her hands out of her pockets, to let them see what she was truly capable of, and what she was becoming right under their eyes. To make them see her, but she knew that ultimately it wouldn’t change anything. That the eyes that she wanted on her, the people she wanted to see her for who she was wouldn’t see that even if she stood right in front of them and shouted what she had done, what she planned to do.

What she would do.

    She knew that she could march right into her father’s office and set her hands in all their bloody glory on the desk, and he still wouldn’t care. That he still wouldn’t see her. At most he would scold her for being undignified, for betraying their expectations, the usual words and recriminations that had etched themselves into her skin by this point. Her mother would be worse, lecturing her for hours upon hours – the only time they seemed to speak these days, and with it would come the usual threats about finishing school, about getting a proper education so that she would finally act like a proper lady of their station. Threats that she feared more than being invisible because at least while unseen she could remain true to herself.

     Her hands balled in her pockets, the drying blood tugging on her skin, not painful but uncomfortable. The sensation grounded her, reminding her that she had a life now, one that she was carving out with her own hands and blood. A life that her parents and their dreams and expectations had no say in, and never would if she had anything to say about it, and she lifted her head and took a deep breath, before striding forward with her head held high. _I will make you see me,_ she thought fiercely as she walked, pretending that every pair of eyes was on her as she headed through into the main house.

One day they would be.

     Her steps seemed to echo more loudly than usual, out of sync with the grandeur around her and she could feel the weight of it pressing in on her. She didn’t belong here. How old had she been when she’d first realised that? Eight? Nine? She wasn’t sure, and it was something she’d tried to bury for a while, adopting the mask of the role she was supposed to play – the wealthy heiress, the perfect daughter, until she had felt out of place in her own skin. Finding and befriending Jesse McCree had changed that, his easy acceptance and friendship opening her eyes to a path that she might never have discovered on her own, giving her chance to be herself - to just be Ashe.

    No. Not to just be Ashe, she would never be ‘just’ something. This new path, this new world she was making for herself was still tenuous at the moment, and she had a way to go until that changed. But when it did… She had plans, dreams, ones that would make her parents roll in their graves if they were dead, or if they even cared about what she did. It would make them open their eyes though. When she was ready, they would see her, and they would realise what had slipped through their fingers.

What they had thrown aside.

    She opened the door to her rooms and came to a halt, as a large form immediately moved into her path, and she rolled her eyes as she stepped back so that she could meet the glistening optics, although her expression softened a little at the glimmer of concern she could see in them.

 “I’m fine Bob.” She didn’t miss the irony that the one person in the entire household who actually gave a damn about her, was the very one that her parents had assigned her as a child – preferring an Omnic over a human carer to stave off unwelcome attachments. If only they knew. Shaking her head, the sting of anger and irritated amusement familiar after all this time, and she moved to step past Bob so that she could clean up, but she had barely taken a step past him when his hand shot out.

    It was a move that would have scared most people, his size intimidating even if his expression wasn’t, but she wasn’t most people, and she knew that he would never hurt her. Sure enough, he grasped her wrist with a gentleness that no one would expect from an Omnic his size, and certainly not one he would show to anyone else – especially those who made the mistake of going up against her, and it was why she didn’t fight when he tugged her hand out of her pocket. “It’s not mine,” she told him in reply to the flashing optics as he took in the blood coating her fingers, knowing that if she didn’t speak, he would proceed to check her over for wounds, and right now all she wanted to do was get clean, although the concern was appreciated.

    Bob didn’t seem convinced by her words if the tilt of his head was anything to go by, but he released her hand. Allowing her to move towards the bathroom as he fell into step behind her and she could feel his gaze on her back as she stepped through the doorway, and she paused, peering back over her shoulder and grinning at him.

“I’ll take you along for the fun next time,” Ashe promised, knowing that even if she didn’t, he would try to follow her anyway, and he made an approving whirr as he reached up to straighten his hat. “It’s time we put that new upgrade of yours to use,” she added more quietly as she disappeared inside to wash the blood from her hands, lips twisted in a determined grin as she gazed at her reflection, seeing past the mask she was forced to adopt at home.

_We’ll pave the way in blood if we have to._

 


End file.
